Belgium wins first world blind wine-tasting contest for teams

Belgium on Saturday won the first world blind wine-tasting competition for teams, with Denmark and England finishing second and third, organisers said.

Philippe Ketelslegers, Filip Mesdom, Eric Derenne and Serge Condens took top honours at the competition held in the southwestern French town of Leognan, near France's winegrowing capital of Bordeaux.

A total of 16 teams from around the world including South Africa, China, Russia, Argentina and Quebec took part.

The competition aimed to "bring together... all these amateurs, tasters from the world over, who can sometimes feel isolated in their home countries," Philippe de Cantenac, a journalist for the French wine monthly that organised the event, told AFP.

The teams, blind-tasting 12 fine wines from around the world, had to identify their countries of origin, the grape varieties used in them, their appellations and their vintages.

A second edition of the competition will be held next year in another French city, Cantenac said.

The magazine La Revue du Vin de France has already hosted European championships in the same since 2008.